dilluns, 3 de novembre de 2014

Update on Catalonia.

Catalan
update!

We’ll
assume everyone has followed the story so far... so, as you may remember the
Catalan government has been asking the Spanish government to sit down and work
out a negotiated referendum with them for about two years. Spain has refused.
Given their democratic mandate to call one, the Catalan government have gone
ahead anyway. A “vote” was announced last year, and called formally on 27th
September this year, with the backing of six political parties.The vote is set for 9th November.

On 29th
September the Spanish government denounced this decision to the Constitutional Court
which suspended the legality of the vote while they study the situation. As they say,
Catalonia does not have the power to unilaterally call a referendum. But,
knowing this, what Catalonia had actually done was call a “non binding public
consultation” which should be possible with an objective reading of the Spanish
Constitution.

The
Catalans believe it doesn’t matter whether the vote is binding or not, as, if
the results are clearly in favour of independence, this will start a chain of
events which will end up at the same place as if the vote had been binding.

The Spanish
government are not blind and realise this – their argument is that, whatever
Catalans call this vote, it is ultimately a referendum “in sheep’s clothing”.

In the
following days, 920 out of the 946 town mayors in Catalonia signed a
declaration of support for the vote – a big move as local political power is
very important here. On 3rd October, over 800 of these mayors
assisted a formal official act in the centuries-old Catalan governmental
building, the Palau de la Generalitat, where they handed these declarations of support over to the
Parliament. See photo. A real tear-jerking moment.

Given that
the Spanish state is a powerful one and there could be legal consequences for
anyone involved in the “now suspended vote”, the Catalan government decided to
change its format and on 14th October announced it would not be
holding the vote as planned, but instead a “citizens participation process”
organized by volunteers – something perfectly legal and low-key, but if
Catalonia could manage to get the numbers out, once again, the real result
would be the same as the original vote.

Preparations
for this voting act (still set for 9th November) are in full flow, but
the Spanish government has now said it will also ask the Constitutional Court
to suspend this "new" set-up of the vote this week (before the 9th, obviously). Watch this space....